At least three MPs have criticised the new rules as “double taxation”, according to the privately-owned Daily Monitor newspaper.

Kyaddondo East MP Robert Kyaggulanyi, aka Bobi Wine – as well as Joshua Anywarach and Silas Aogon – said that because users access WhatsApp through taxed airtime, an additional tax would infringe their rights.

Another MP, Patrick Nsamba of the ruling party, said the tax will hurt the poorest most:

It is very easy for an MP to say that 1% is little money, but to people who earn less than a dollar a day, it is going to break their backs.”